alternate yeast for kit?

Sorry, but I disagree. EC-1118 is usually put in kits because it's hard for someone to kill. It has a wide temperature range, higher alcohol tolerance, is a killer strain. In short, it's used because it's about as fool proof as you can get, not because it matches the wine being made. It's one of the last I would pick for a Riesling.

I used ICV D-47 on a Riesling with good results, but it's a more finicky yeast. 71B would probably also be a decent one to use.

Andy

characteristics.

"JEP" wrote:

What you say makes sense. I don't work with kits (or make Riesling), but had assumed they would select the optimal yeast for the wine. Regardless, the poster should have equal success with another yeast of similar characteristics, or any yeast which was rated for the applicable temperature and potential alcohol.

I also believe the performance characteristics of the yeast (e.g. alcohol tolerance, foaming, flocculation, etc.) to be more important than the flavour characteristics, because (in my experience) after a few years of aging there is virtually no perceptible difference between yeasts. For example, I made identical batches of Sangiovese with Montrachet, Pasteur Red, and Premier Cuvee. Although each yeast performed quite differently, there were only subtle flavour differences after a few months, and none that I can detect after 4 years of bulk aging.

David, I made this kit earlier this year using a Wyeast Rudsheimer yeast. This yeast was selected from German Riesling fermentations and the result was very, very good. This yeast is a slow fermenter, especially when you ferment it cold - I fermented mine at around 50 degrees, and it took a good month to ferment.

As others have noted, most kits come with EC-1118 because it's hard to get it wrong and it will ferment to dryness.

For fruity wines like the Riesling, I've also used Lalvin D-47 with excellent results.

Alastair

Alastair,

Thanks, that sounds like a good way to go. Were you able to follow the kit instructions as printed, or did you make any alterations? I appreciate your comments,

David

Alastair Thoms> David,

I agree with you to some extent that the differences from various yeasts diminishes with time, but not entirely. And I would certainly say that my own experiments of using bayanus strains like Premier Cuvee and EC-1118 versus cerivisiaie strains like Montrachet and Pasteur Red revealed significant differences well past 4 months, even

A lot of wineries go through a lot of trouble to select the best strains to use for their wines, including many that are not meant to be consumed for several years.

Perhaps you're just not as in tune with the differences as some people are? I don't mean this as a personal slam! I think it's pretty widely acknowledged that different people have varying sensitivies in their organoleptic senses, just as some people have better vision or hearing than others. My wife has been a wine drinker for longer than I, and of the differences that I think are huge she often can barely notice. Other friends of mine describe differences that I can't detect.

Besides, it is unlikely that anyone will save much at all, let alone the majority, of a white kit wine for as long as four years. I would expect that in the timeframes that most of this wine will be consumed, the differences could be very significant.

Cheers! Richard